e-LYNXX’ Gindlesperger Rallies Support for Public Printer’s Outsourcing Pitch

Gindlesperger said numbers reported by the OMB are necessarily incorrect. “There exists a huge body of printing spread across the entire federal government that goes unreported as a result of the way printing is booked. Often, printing is booked as a project cost, or a communication expense, or part of a larger training project, or as copying expense, or simply as paper purchased (while labor, equipment and other printing costs are booked under separate spend categories), or in any number of other ways to conceal the in house printing shop activities.

“There are also a large number of unauthorized agency printing plants operating that have grown significantly over the years outside the oversight of the Congressional Joint Committee on Printing that may or may not have given a specific waiver for the operation of the agency printing plant in the first place. Further complicating OMB’s reporting is the fact that many of the waivers are simply lost and not reportable,” Gindlesperger explained.

He went on to say some industry experts believe that this body of fugitive printing exceeds $10 billion. “In an industry that has taken hit after hit and is now on artificial respiration, having dropped from perhaps $150 billion a few years ago and now hovering around $90 billion, the addition of another $10 billion through GPO would be just what the doctor ordered.

“Congress likes to talk about what it wants to do for taxpayers, well here is one great opportunity to do the right thing by partnering with Mr. Boarman and putting this printing work into the private sector where it belongs,” Gindlesperger continued. “So why doesn’t the Joint Committee on Printing jump to do what Mr. Boarman is asking—eliminate waivers and act to shutter agency plants, thus sending federal government printing to GPO in accordance with the law? After all, the government wins, the federal agencies win, GPO wins, the printing industry wins, and—most importantly—the taxpayers win.

This topic is revisited every so many years. In the ’70s, many hearings were conducted to
review Title 44 to modernize it. A breakdown between the Executive Agencies and the JCP
occurred. After all the hearings one of the key results was that DoD was able to break their printing away from the general mess. Many agencies simply cannot procure their printing due to special needs for confidentiality. If the government can’t measure it, they can’t control it so it will go unchanged.

The more you dig here, the more printing will go away. If agencies are forced to send work to the GPO you will see less of it and the printing industry will lose. So be careful for what you wish for.